Top-tips-for-powerpoint-presentations-CNTW.pdf

Eight PowerPoint slides
to help make your
presentation successful

1. Eight PowerPoint slides
to help make your
presentation successful

2. What makes effective slides?
•Keep it simple
•24 pt minimum font
size
•2 fonts only
•Good contrast
•Simple animations
•Keep the text very
simple. Put as little on
a slide as possible
•Bullet points are not full
sentences.
•Use full sentences for
titles where possible.
Slide design

3. •A picture paints a thousand
words –use a photograph or
other picture on nearly every
slide (as long as it is relevant).
Contact the Patient Information
for advice about images.
•Also think about copyright
issues. Contact the Patient
Information Centre for advice.
•Screen shots can be useful to
illustrate technical
explanations.

4. •If animating text, do it simply and quickly. The best
options are “Appear”, “Wipe” (from top or left, very fast),
Fade (only if very fast).
•Avoid using unnecessary sound and fancy multimedia
stuff –if you’re just putting it in to wake up the audience
then perhaps you need to work out why they are asleep.

5. •Use a simple
background, if light use
dark text if dark use light
text.
•Experiment with
creating your own with
simple colours or
gradients rather than
using the pre- set ones.

6. Presenting
Remember you are giving the presentation so do not
just read the slides.
And never turn your back to the audience. Make sure
you can see the monitor and maintain eye contact with
your audience.
The slides are there to help the audience follow the flow
of the presentation and listen to you.
If you are just going to read your slides then you can
save time for both parties and just give them a handout.

7. Don’t just use the
Handouts option in
PowerPoint. Give out
more detailed handouts
so that you can keep your
slides simple.
Remember you can
export your slides to Word
(File, Send to, Microsoft
Word) and put extra notes
alongside or beneath
each slide.
Don’t just use the Handouts option in PowerPoint. Give out more detailed handouts so that you can keep your slides simple. Remember you can export your slides to Word (File, Send to, Microsoft Word) and put extra notes alongside or beneath each slide.

8. Don’t annoy your audience
Many people get annoyed by PowerPoint presentations
by simple things which can be easily fixed.
These are the top irritants:
Topaudience irritations
1The speaker reads the slides to us
2Text so small I couldn’t read it
3Full sentences instead of bullet points
4Slides hard to see because of colour choice
5Moving/flying text or graphics
6Annoying use of sounds
7Overly complex diagrams or charts